Short chapter this week.

You can read this part without the corresponding one-shots, but I don't really recommend it. Check out these side stories if you haven't already, "Go-To Guy", "Stitches", and "Until Death Do Us" to get the full KiddxLaw backstory. (You can find them all on my profile under the "Memories" fic list.) Please remember the timeline is messed up, I'll fix it some day I promise.

Chapter Ten

The message alarm went off, waking Shachi from sleep and he rolled to his side, worried that it was work and he needed to come in early. Snatching the phone from the nightstand, he then rolled to his back and blinked his eyes blearily at the bright screen. No, it was just Penguin. Shachi heaved a sigh of relief and tried to make sense of the number and words in front of him. An address? Why had Penguin sent him an address?

Then, as he watched, a few more messages popped up.

Penguin: That's Law's address
Penguin: Ur like three blocks away
Penguin: Racecar
Penguin: Do NOT bring alcohol

"Racecar" was code for no one's dying but it's still important get over here. They had a few codes: "Dollop" was not an emergency but I have something to tell you, "Elephant" was help get me out of here, "Scarecrow" was I might be having sex in the common areas when you come home—Penguin used this one far more than Shachi—and "Zephyr" was for emergencies. There was no theme to their code words, they were just words that Penguin and Shachi knew they would never use in context with anything else.

Shachi threw off the covers and heaved himself out of bed. The clock on the nightstand said it was a little after three o'clock, so he'd had a little less than seven hours sleep, which was plenty. After Law's fight the night before, the crew had thrown an after party and Shachi had volunteered to stay and pour drinks. It had been worth it; his coworkers were fun and he had gotten the chance to show off his skills to his supervisors. He would be working again tonight, but it was Sunday, so it would be mostly just cleaning and stocking.

Stumbling into the bathroom, he clumsily brushed his teeth. Then he moved back into the bedroom, pulled off his boxers from the night before, and looked around for something clean to wear.

A knot tightened in Law's stomach.

"Will you tell me about Kidd?" What exactly did that mean? Tell him what? He narrowed his eyes at Nick and took a slow breath.

"I don't understand," he said softly. Despondently.

Nick seemed unphased, which in Law's mind was kind of intriguing. He really had grown up since they had last seen each other.

"I just want to understand your relationship with him."

That stung a little. Law knew Nick hadn't meant it as a blow, but those words had hit him, hard. He turned away and hugged the pillow he was holding just a little harder. It was the pink, fuzzy one Chopper had insisted they buy at the recent festival downtown.

"'Relationship' is a complicated word," Law grumbled.

Nick nodded. "I know, that's why I was thinking maybe you'd explain it to me."

"There's not a lot of explaining to do," Law gestured with his hands, already more on edge than he really should be. "We were partners when I was undercover, I saved his life, then he saved mine. He came with me when I came up here because neither one of us had anywhere else to go."

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but a knock on the door interrupted him.

"Who the hell is that?" Law wondered aloud, moving to get up.

Nick put a hand out to stop him. "It's Shachi, I'll get it."

"Shachi?" Law asked, confused as he watched Nick stand and move towards the door. "Why is Shachi here?"

"I texted him," Nick said. Apparently, that was all the explanation Law was going to get.

The door opened, and Law heard Nick sigh. "I told you not to bring alcohol."

"It's not alcohol!" Shachi's cried, "It's the Jones we had in the fridge! I couldn't come with nothing!"

"Yeah, guess you're right. Law's in there."

Shachi rounded the corner and smiled when he saw Law. "Sup bro?"

Law nodded to him and wrapped his arms a little tighter around the pillow. He was actually getting a little nervous. This was obviously some kind of intervention and while he appreciated that his brothers cared, he also knew there wasn't anything anyone could do for him.

Without ceremony, Shachi kicked off his shoes and took a seat right on the coffee table. He placed a six pack of Jones soda on the wood beside him and motioned to it with his hand.

"Maybe later," Law said.

Shachi shrugged and opened an orange for himself.

"Law and I were just talking about Kidd," Nick said softly.

"Hm," Shachi took a swallow from his bottle and nodded, "Kidd's awesome. I've only talked to him a couple times, but he's already the best boss I've ever had. Dude," he motioned to Law, "Vergo really fucked up your neck."

Law sighed, he should have put on a sweatshirt or something.

"That's not from Vergo," Nick said. His voice was quiet, laced with hidden meaning, and Law looked over at him with mounting trepidation coiling in his gut.

"How the hell would you…" Law stopped, swallowed, and then started again. "So?"

"Oohhh," Shachi said, scratching at his forehead, "we're having this conversation."

Law shot a glance from one brother to the other, his anxiety ramping up. "What the hell does that mean?"

Shachi held up his hands. "Don't freak out, bro, we're not here to judge or point fingers or nothin'."

Anger boiled in his gut. They had blindsided him, caught him in a trap of familial trust. How could he have been this stupid? "I don't have time for a fucking intervention," Law growled. "You guys have been back in my life for what, four days? A week? What makes you think you have the right—"

"—We got more right than anyone!" Shachi snapped.

"—Don't you think for a fucking second—"

Nick's hand came down on Law's shoulder and pushed him back down onto the couch. It was gentle, but firm. Law found himself breathing heavily, snarling up at Shachi, who really only had sad eyes directed at him and a sympathetic twist to his mouth.

"Calm down," Nick said softly, "it's okay. Deep breaths."

"Don't patronize me," Law spat.

"Look at me," Nick said. "Traf, look at me."

Reluctantly, Law turned from Shachi's eyes and met with Nick's. They were just as sad, just as sympathetic and it was awful. They were looking at him like he was weak, like he had been broken during his time undercover and now there were here trying to help him. They were trying to fix what was broken. Shame and humiliation washed over Law so thickly it was suddenly hard to breathe.

"Listen to me," Nick said. "We're you're brothers. Your brothers, man. We don't care what you did, or what you had to do when you were wherever you were. We don't fucking care."

Law held his breath. Here came the "but", the point where they tried to steer him away from what was hurting him. He dreaded that "but". Everyone had given him a version of this spiel: look we're not judging you for this and that but if you want to do this, you have to bla bla bla.

We love you and care about you but you gotta face facts.

It's okay to be angry but you have to start forgiving yourself.

No one is blaming you for what happened but maybe it's better this way.

But. But. But

Fucking hell.

However, that "but" from his brothers never came.

"We're here for you, man," Nick said softly. "We're with you to hell and back. To the end of the fucking line."

"You don't have to justify anything," Shachi added, "just tell us what happened so we can support you."

Nick's hand tightened on his shoulder. "You're messed up, anyone can see that. We just want to know why. Tell us if we need to kick someone's ass, or if we need to tie Kidd up and throw him in the trunk so you guys can have it out, or whatever."

"Uh…" Shachi held up a hand, "okay, I might not do that part, but I'll support Penguin if you need him to do it."

Law sat for a few long moments, trying to understand what his brothers were saying. They just wanted to know what happened? They weren't going to tell him what to do? How to get better? They just wanted…

"You guys," Law whispered, worried his voice was going to fail him. "You guys just want… you're just…"

Penguin slid his arm around Law's shoulders. "We're just here to listen."

Shachi nodded. "Just tell us everything. We can't have your back if we don't know what the fuck's going on."

Law looked down at the plush throw pillow, fighting back the wave of emotion that swept him up. His vision blurred for a moment, but he was able to hold it back, get himself under control. After a few moments, he sniffed once and looked back up at his brothers. They were sitting patiently, waiting, encouraging with just their presence.

"Hand me the strawberry Jones," Law said softly, "I'll tell you the whole story."

Law told them about Kidd. He told them everything. How they had met, how Kidd had latched on to him, knowing that Law was going to climb ranks. He told them how Kidd had supported him when he had gone against the area underboss, taken over control of the territory, gotten the blessing from the higher ups, and then expanded.

Penguin listened with more surprise than he let on. He had known Law had done some shit, but he really hadn't any idea. Not really. The life Law had led had been hard, not just because of the constant threat of violence, the drugs, and the competition, no. It had been the double life. That looming danger of being caught hung over Law's head every second of every day. It became harder and harder to ignore because as he got deeper, Law had realized he had come to care for his men, the very ones he was there to bring in. The partitioning of his heart between his feelings for his crew and his feelings for his job—his duty—almost killed him in the end, and it had been more painful than any bullet.

"I didn't…" Law stopped and cleared his throat. He had been working up to something for the last few minutes and it was something big enough to trip him up.

"I didn't know what was happening right away, it was just a feeling like… I felt safe or comforted or something when Kidd was around." Law's eyes had lowered to the floor and he seemed to be staring far away as he spoke. "He was so cold to everyone except me. He would… just show up at my place and we'd… we wouldn't do anything actually, we'd just sit around and talk or watch a movie. I hadn't had that in a long time, not since you guys."

Penguin glanced at Shachi but his brother only saw Law. He was rapt, eyes wide, barely breathing as he listened.

Law continued, quieter. "Laura and I had separated before I went under, like I told you. I hadn't seen her in years, hadn't been with anyone in a long time. After a while I realized it was because I just… wanted to be around Kidd all the time."

Having already suspected this, Penguin said nothing, but Shachi made a soft noise and tried to hide it by finishing off his Jones.

"I know what you're thinking," Law sighed.

"No," Shachi said defiantly, "you have no idea what I'm thinking."

Penguin kicked him and Shachi whined.

"I told you man," Penguin said, "we're not here to judge."

Law shook his head. "Whatever. So, Kidd felt kind of the same way and we… ended up together. It—"

"—Woa woa," Shachi interrupted, "you skipped a lot of shit just now."

Penguin kicked him again, but he ignored it as Law looked up at him, his brows furrowed. "What do you mean? You want me to spell it out?"

Shachi sat up straighter and spread his hands. "Um, yeah kind of? I want to hear how you guys got together! Come on! Don't leave important shit out!"

Law looked at his brother like he had just sprouted horns, and when he turned to Penguin for help, Penguin merely smiled. "Yeah, don't leave shit out."

There was a moment then when Penguin thought Law was going to bail. He looked almost frightened, like if he told them these secrets, these particular parts of his life, he would be breaking a spell or releasing something out into the world. However, after almost a minute, Law seemed to reign in back in and he glanced back down at the throw pillow he still held tightly against his chest with both arms, his Jones finished long ago and sitting empty on the coffee table.

"Uh… I've never really told anyone…" he cleared his throat and swallowed thickly. "It just happened one night. I had just taken over the territory and was telling Kidd how he was my consigliere—that's like a right-hand guy… and he just… the way he was looking at me I couldn't…"

"Your passion was just too much?" Shachi grinned. "You made sweet, sweet love down by the fire on a bearskin rug?"

"Uh no," and Law actually chuckled then, "we fucked on the desk."

"Nice!" Shachi exclaimed. "But aw, but no bearskin rug."

"I had my gun," Law said with a smirk, "Kidd told me to keep the safety off."

It was the combination of that last bit of information combined with the look on Shachi's face that got Penguin laughing. He threw his head back and cackled at the ceiling.

"Jesus, Law," he cried, "that's amazing."

When he was able to get himself under control again, he looked over at Law, who shrugged and turned a sly smile towards Shachi.

"Well," Shachi breathed out, "that's pretty intense."

The story came easier after that. Penguin supposed it was because Shachi and he had taken the confession of Law being with Kidd intimately so well. But really, how else were they going to take it? They didn't care if Law fucked dudes. Shachi had fucked a few dudes. It hadn't been anything serious, and he was pretty sure he was more into girls, but what did any of that matter between the three of them? Nothing.

Law told them things about his three years with Kidd, about how they came at everything as a unit. How they sometimes didn't even need words, Law could just think something, and Kidd would do it.

The story of how Kidd found out about Law being undercover was difficult, but Law powered through it.

"It was so stupid," Law had relaxed against the couch and he was telling this part of the story to the ceiling. "I'd been discovered. I was fucking burned, and all I could think about was Kidd. Not about how he was probably going to kill me, but how he was going to be pissed that I'd been lying to him." He recounted how Kidd had snuck out of the hospital after his surgery and slipped into Law's house while Law had been in the shower.

"I thought he would be mad, but he was more… hurt. He thought I was only with him for the undercover job."

"Oh shit," Shachi breathed.

Law huffed a laugh and closed his eyes. "I was ready for him to kill me, I really was, but he just…" he paused again and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how to explain this part so let's just say we had sex, and it was great, and he said he wouldn't tell anyone, but that the thing between us was over."

"No…" Shachi's face was pathetic. He had always been a sucker for a tragic love story.

Penguin felt the need to interrupt and scooted closer to where Law sat. "He really didn't tell anyone?"

Law nodded, but kept his eyes closed. "He never told a soul."

Amazed and intrigued, Penguin sat back and shared a look with Shachi. "Why?"

Law shrugged. "He said he loved me."

That struck a chord in Penguin's heart. He'd had some idea of the pain Law was going through, but he had never imagined that it was this deep. Law and Kidd had been together, and they had loved each other. Law probably still loved Kidd, so much that it was killing him. Suddenly, the closed-off attitude, the shifty answers, and the destructive behavior all made sense.

And Kidd?

Penguin quickly went through his memories of meeting Kidd the night before. The way he had watched Law's fight on the edge of his seat, the way his amber eyes had followed every move Law had made. It was hard to tell, Penguin didn't know him well enough.

After that," Law said softly, "it was all the shit that happened here, the big show, the fight with Blackbeard… Then a year later there was the raid where I 'died'. You know all that."

Shachi nodded. "You moved here, and got job and shit, but something else must have happened 'cause now you're all fucked up and he's a recluse."

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Law chuckled humorlessly. "We moved here, and everything went to shit."

Law ran his thumbs over the seam of the pillow, unsure how to tell this next part. The falling out between himself and Kidd had happened gradually, little bits of things over time that weakened the bond between them. It hadn't been something obvious, no single event in their past Law could point a finger at and say, "that's what did it, that right there." Unless one counted the thing that had happened with Chopper, but that had been more like the straw that had finally broken the camel's back. No, it had definitely been an accumulation of things, of different wants and needs.

At least, that's how Law saw it.

"When we moved to Seattle," Law started slowly, "we had to deal with the fallout from the raid first. We went to Kaku and Lucci, they were the guys that ran the scene up here. They also owned the club—Kidd's club—and happened to be friends with Luffy and Zoro and all them. We requested asylum, and then with Dalton and help from the DA down in Cali, I got a new ID. It was a lot easier than I had imagined.

"Kidd and I got an apartment, some shithole in Georgetown, it was just this one room studio thing. We didn't have any furniture except a couple of mattresses and a foldout table and chairs. It didn't matter, we were at the club almost all the time. We took whatever jobs Kaku sent our way, and then at night we fought in the pit. For a few months we just worked and fought and saved whatever we made until I had enough to go back to medical school. Kidd insisted, he wasn't hearing anything else.

"In the year I was in residency, I didn't fight as much, I didn't have time, but Kidd kept at it. He told me about how Kaku was thinking of moving, expanding up in Canada, and how he was going to take the opportunity and buy the club. I tried to get back into fights to help him with costs, but he talked me into only focusing on my studies."

"That's a good thing, I think," Shachi murmured.

Law nodded. "Yeah, I wouldn't have made it if I'd been fighting on top of the forty-eight-hour shifts."

Shachi whistled, "Damn."

"Right around the time I graduated and started working at the morgue full time, Kidd bought the club and started renovations. I started looking for houses because we could afford it and I was tired of living in a studio in the middle of the ghetto. I found this one," he gestured around him absently, "I thought Kidd would like it and it wasn't too far from both the morgue and the hospital.

"He didn't go for it though, and I should have known. Kidd had been building the club with the apartment on top for himself, and never had any intention to move in with me. I don't know what I was thinking, getting a house together? We weren't even really together together anymore, there wasn't really…" he took a slow, painful breath as memories of amber eyes looking at him with something like despair flooded his mind.

Clearing his throat, Law continued. "He said I couldn't be a doctor and live in the legitimate world if I was shacked up with a criminal and condoning illegal fights. I said I absolutely could, I could stop trying to be legitimate and just leave, go underground with him, work at the club and make extra money patching up fighters. The club needs that kind of shit desperately anyway.

"But he didn't go for that either and we got in a big fight over it and didn't speak for a few months. I kept my job at the morgue, worked my ass off, got closer to Luffy and Sanji and all them, started hanging out with Chopper… life got pretty normal and boring. Just what Kidd wanted for me."

"But you guys are sort of talking again," Nick said, his face a tiny twist of confusion.

Law nodded again, wondering how to tell this part without actually telling it. "I went back to the club one night because a guy I knew when we were undercover had come to town. He's… big, one of the biggest, and I wanted to straighten some things out with him."

"Who was the guy?" Nick asked.

"He's got a lot of names but the most popular is Doflamingo."

Nick's eyes went wide then, and his skin lightened a few shades. "Are you talking about Donquixote Doflamingo?"

Law shrugged. "Unless there's more than one Doflamingo ruling over most of the California territory."

"Jesus, Traf."

"What?" Shachi pipped up. "Who's this Flamingo guy?"

"He's a fucking crime lord," Nick breathed, "a fucking dangerous one. I can't believe…" he ran a hand over his eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Okay, not important right now. Finish your story, Traf."

"There's not much to tell after that," Law said. "It got heated, I went a little crazy, he went a little crazy, and then Kidd had to step in. He made the fight official, and I got my ass handed to me. Luffy challenged Doflamingo and the next night beat the shit out of him."

"Woa what!?" Nick's eyes were saucers.

Chuckling, Law tilted his head to the side and smiled fondly, "Remember what Dalton called Luffy? 'A force of nature'? It wasn't an exaggeration."

"Jesus…" Nick whispered. "Holy shit son of a fucking… goddamn…"

"I'm missing something kind of important, huh?" Shachi pouted.

"I'll explain later," Nick waved his hand at his brother, shushing him, and then turned back to Law. "Okay, so you had kind of a slow churn fallout with Kidd, and then this thing with Doflamingo happens."

"Kidd figured it was impossible to not be in each other's lives, so we called a very delicate kind of truce. We stay in touch so we're not worrying about each other all the time—that was for him, and I'm allowed to fight in the pit if I want, but no more than two fights a month—that was for me. It's worked out all right so far."

Nick gave him a very intense sideways glance, "And that's it?"

"That's it." Law hated lying to them, but the last bit of the story was not his to tell. When Chopper was ready and was finally dealing with what he needed to be dealing with, then he could tell it himself.

Shachi sat for a moment, not saying anything, but then stood abruptly and stretched. "Okay, I need to pee, I drank like three Jones. Penguin," he turned to his brother, "bro, you go ahead and tell him whatever you need to tell him, but when I get back I'm ordering food and making Law eat."

Nick nodded but said nothing as Shachi moved out of the room.

For a long stretch of moments, there was a very pregnant silence filling the room between the two men. They sat so close, only a few feet apart on the couch, but there was a chasm between them, a giant ravine of things that had not been said, and probably should have been said, and for that stretch of endless moments, Law waited for Nick to start in on any number of those unspoken things…

However, again, none of those things ever came.

"I'm sorry," Nick said softly.

"What?" Law asked, startled.

Nick shrugged. "I know you're not telling me everything, and that's okay, I get the idea now. And I'm just… really sorry that all this happened to you."

Touched, Law squeezed the pillow to his chest again and buried the bottom half of his face in the soft, pink plush. That powerful wave of emotion had come washing over him again, and this time, he wasn't sure he could keep it at bay.

"Thanks, man," he said softly.

"I have to go," Nick murmured, "I got about a thousand calls to make, but Shachi's gonna take care of you, okay?"

Law nodded again.

Another handful of seconds passed, then he felt movement, the couch cushion dipped beside him, and Nick's strong arm came around his shoulders again. Law let out a pathetic sound, closed his eyes, and leaned into his brother's embrace.

"You're okay," Nick said softly, "you're gonna be just fine."

Time passed without Law's knowledge. He felt the warm comfort of Nick's arm around his shoulders, then the calloused pads of Shachi's fingers sliding across his palm, the weight of a second body pressed against his side, and the tickle of that wiry, red hair on his cheek.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, and at the same time, a horrible ache in his chest finally, finally started to fade. He felt safe.

For the first time in almost fifteen years, Law was home.

TBC

Oops, that didn't explain everything did it? Oh noooo.

Still more mystery to unfold! Thank you so much for reading and commenting, it makes my day.

Extra: So I posted early and posted shorter this week because I wanted to start on the fourth KiddxLaw one-shot, the one about them coming to Seattle, the slow fallout between them, and the fight with Doffy. Hopefully I'll have enough time to get that out this weekend or next. Cross your fingers! XOXO